Indirect lighting lamp and shade therefor



March 4, 1941. GOULD, JR 2,233,780

INDIRECT LIGHTING LAMP AND SHADE THEREFOR Filed Sept. 6, 1939 III 1 1lllilil INVENTOR James Goa/d Jr:

ATTO R N EY Patented Mar. 4, i941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE JamesGould, Jr., Meriden, Conn., assignor to The Miller Company, Meriden,Conn., a corporation of Connecticut Application September 6, 1939,Serial No. 293,529

1 Claim.

The present invention relates to an indirect lighting lamp and shadetherefor.

Some forms of indirect lighting floor lamps have an overall height whichbrings the top of the lamp below the line of vision of a tall personstanding, and such lamps have the disadvantage of exposing the lamp bulbto direct observation. The present invention contemplates providinglamps of this nature a with suitable screening means whereby the brightsurface of the upright lamp bulb will be screened against observation atnormal angles of view. This screening means may conveniently take theform of louvers of suitable configuration supported above the lamp bulband inside the upper part of the indirect lighting reflector. Theselouvers may most conveniently be secured to the framework employed inthe conventional shade used with such lamps so that a unitary article ofmanufacture is provided having the outer shade and the louvers. In thisway the screening is available at little increase in cost over that of asimilar indirect lighting lamp with the usual shade.

The accompanying drawing shows; for purposes of illustrating the presentinvention, one embodi- .ment in which the invention may take form, itbeing understood that the drawing is illustrative of the inventionrather than limiting the same.

In this drawing:

Figure 1 is a side elevational View of a portable lamp;

Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view through the upper part of thelamp; and

Figure 3 is a fragmentary top plan view of the lamp.

The lamp is provided with a suitable standard ill with the usual devicesfor supporting upwardly acting difiusing reflector II and lamp bulb l2.An outer shade of any conventional construction is illustrated at [3. Itis provided with the usual frame having radially extending arms l4welded to a center disk l5. These arms are adapted to rest on top of thereflector I I as indicated. Louvers l6 and I1 are secured to the arms l4preferably by welding them in place. While these louvers are shown asround, it is, of course, possible to make them of other configurations.The louver I6 is generally shallower than the louver I! in order toaccommodate the lamp bulb I2.

The louvers I6 and l! are eifective in screening the bulb [2 fromobservation through a wide range of angles above the horizontal so thatwhen one with the eye slightly above the top of the floor lamp lookstoward it from across the room, he does not see the bright lamp bulb.Not only do the louvers control the emission of direct light at lowangles above the horizontal, but they also control the emission of lightreflected at low angles from the upper part of the reflector walls. Onetherefore does not obtain glare from either of these possible glaresources, and the use of the louvers makes it possible to avoid theextremely bright spot which is produced when portable 10 lampswithoutthe louver arrangement are placed near the wall of the room.

It is apparent that, within the scope of the invention, modificationsand dififerent arrangements may be made other than is herein disl5closed, and the present disclosure is illustrative merely, the inventioncomprehending all variations thereof.

What is claimed is:

A portable lamp, comprising a standard having an upwardly opening lampsocket, a lamp bulb therein, an annular inverted bowl shaped translucentreflector with its upper Walls steep and its upper edge slightly abovethe top of the lamp bulb, whereby direct light rays emitted from the topof the bulb and intense reflected light rays emitted from the upper partof the reflector walls tend to escape over the top of the reflector atlow angles above the horizontal to produce a bright spot on an adjacentwall or the like and glare if viewed at low angles above the horizontal,a frame having radial arms extending across the top of the reflector andsubstantially in the plane of the top of the reflector, a downwardly andoutwardly flaring shade carried by the frame about the reflector toscreen the reflector, and two screening rings fixedly secured to andextending downwardly from the arms of the frame within the reflector,the diameter and depth of the outer ring being such as to cut ofi directlight from the light center of the bulb immediately above that normallyintercepted by the reflector and to cut off the light returned by thereflector at low angles above the horizontal, the depth and diameter ofthe inner ring being such as to intercept light emitted at low anglesabove the horizontal from the top of the bulb which would otherwiseescape immediately over the top of the outer ring, and thedepth of therings increasing with the distance from the axis of the shade; saidframe, rings and shade being made integral to form a unitary articletobe freely supported from the top of the reflector.

JAMES GOULD, JR.

